Friday, July 10th 2020
To all attendees of the Eastern Ontario Opening Doors Conference:
The following is part of an email from Joanne Lush, Manager, AIDS and Hepatitis C Programs Provincial Programs Branch.
“We have been hearing from many of you with questions about proposed activities for Opening Doors in 2020-21. Given the current situation with COVID-19 and the uncertainty surrounding guidelines for how and when to re-engage front-line services and large gatherings, we will be supporting you to redirect those resources into other activities for 2020-21.
To clarify, the expectation is that:
- In-person Opening Doors events for 2020-21 will not be taking place;
- We will be meeting with each region (key ASO partners only) to support the use of these funds.”
We understand how disappointing this is, in what has already been an especially challenging year. As a committee, Opening Doors is an event we plan with great care and love, and we look forward to seeing each of you each year. So with that in mind, the Eastern Ontario Opening Doors Committee is working together on finding some creative and fun ways to deliver information and to keep our awesome community engaged!
In the meantime, we would love your help! For those of you who have attended previous Eastern Ontario Opening Doors conferences, we are asking you to send us any pictures (it can also be pictures of keepsake items, nametags, workshop art, fun handouts etc). Our plan is to combine them all into a slide show of history and moments to share. We are also asking our creative community (YOU!) to send us any other ideas on ways we can connect and share virtually.
Please ask anyone in the picture for consent to send it, along with their name and contact information to us. Please specify any details you might have including the year, presenter names, or location. Please send the photos to:
Joanne Staples: joannes@kingston.net
Gord Asmus: gord@aco-cso.ca
On behalf of the entire planning committee, we would like to wish you and yours good health as we go through these challenging times.
We miss you and look forward to seeing you again soon!
Gord Asmus
Joanne Staples
Co-Chairs of the Eastern Ontario Opening Doors Planning Committee.